World News: At Least 39 Dead in Kenya Death Terrorist Attack; 3 US Dead in Afghanistan; Hong Kong Typhoon

Armed police leave after entering the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013. Gunmen threw grenades and opened fire Saturday, killing at least 22 people in an attack targeting non-Muslims at an upscale mall in Kenya's capital that was hosting a children's day event, a Red Cross official and witnesses said. (AP Photo/Jonathan Kalan)

KENYA-MALL ATTACK NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Officials in Kenya say 39 people, including at least four foreigners, were killed and more than 150 others were injured by armed terrorists who attacked an upscale mall in Nairobi on Saturday. President Uhuru Kenyatta says he lost "very close family members" in the attack carried out by "despicable perpetrators" of a cowardly act. France's president says two French women were killed. And Canada's prime minister says two Canadians were killed, including a diplomat. Hostages are still being held by the militants and security forces are trying to end the standoff. The president calls it a delicate operation with its top priority to safeguard the lives of those still being held hostage. Somalia's Islamic extremist group al-Shabab is claiming responsibility and says the attack was retribution for Kenyan forces' 2011 push into Somalia. The militants are threatening more attacks.

KENYA MALL ATTACK-AMERICANS Officials: 4 US citizens injured in Kenya attack WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. officials say four American citizens have been injured in Saturday's deadly attack on a shopping mall in Kenya. The officials say the wife of a foreign service national working for the U.S. Agency for International Development was killed. Kenyan officials say the assault by Somali militants on Nairobi's top shopping mall killed at least 39 people and wounded more than 150 others. A State Department official says consular officers have been in contact with the four injured Americans and have been providing appropriate assistance. No details about them have been released due to privacy concerns. Secretary of State John Kerry called the attack "a heartbreaking reminder that there exists unspeakable evil in our world which can destroy life in a senseless instant." In a statement from the White House, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council says the U.S. will help bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice. NSC spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden says "We will continue to stand with the Kenyan people in their efforts to confront terrorism in all its forms, including the threat posed by al-Shabaab." She says "This cowardly act against innocent civilians will not shake our resolve."

KENYA MALL ATTACK-CANADIANS 2 Canadians dead in Kenya mall attack OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) -- Two Canadians have died in a terrorist attack at a shopping mall in Kenya. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office issued a statement confirming diplomat Annemarie Desloges died along with one other unidentified Canadian. The statement called Desloges a distinguished public servant of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration who served in Canada's High Commission to Kenya. Kenyan officials say at least 39 people were killed and 150 others were wounded in the assault. Somalia's Islamic extremist group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility and says the attack was retribution for Kenyan forces' 2011 push into Somalia.

AFGHANISTAN-US TROOPS WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Defense Department says the three troops killed Saturday in eastern Afghanistan by an Afghan wearing a security forces uniform are Americans. It appears to be the seventh such attack by a member of the Afghan forces against their international allies. A Defense Department official says no details will be released about the three American troops killed in the attack until after notification of relatives. An Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman says the shooting took place Saturday near the Pakistan border in the capital of eastern Paktia province, the city of Gardez. A security official there says the attack took place inside a base of the Afghan army in Gardez. So far this year, 11 foreign soldiers have been killed in such attacks, including the attack Saturday.

IRAQ BAGHDAD (AP) -- More than 90 people are dead after a string of attacks in Iraq today. In the deadliest of the attacks, two suicide bombers struck a cluster of funeral tents packed with mourning families in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad. Police say at least 72 people were killed and more than 120 were wounded. Police say one bomber was able to drive up near the tent before setting off a car packed with explosives. Another bomber on foot blew himself up nearby. The attack in the densely populated Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City was one of the biggest single terrorist assaults on civilians in Iraq in recent years. In one of the day's other attacks, suicide bombers detonated explosive belts in a police commando headquarters in a city north of Baghdad (Beiji), killing seven policemen and wounding 21 others. More than 4,000 people have been killed in violent attacks between April and August, according to the United Nations. An Associated Press tally finds nearly 500 others have been killed so far this month.

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) -- Voters in Iraq's Kurdish north are making their way to polling stations for parliamentary elections in which smaller parties are hoping to challenge the self-rule region's two major political movements. Voting got under way Saturday for the Kurdistan Regional Government's 111-seat legislature, the fourth such election since 1992. The two parties that dominate Kurdish politics, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of regional President Masoud Barzani, are hoping to fend off challenges by smaller opposition parties. One known as Gorran, or Change, had a surprisingly strong showing in the 2009 vote. It's competing again with a campaign attacking alleged corruption and nepotism. The results are unlikely to significantly affect the Kurds' push for greater regional autonomy or ongoing disputes with Baghdad.

ISTANBUL (AP) -- Turkish authorities say they killed a suspected assailant and injured another after a rocket attack on two police buildings in Ankara. State-run Anadoglu press agency says the rockets, launched late Friday, damaged one of the buildings but no one was injured. Interior Minister Muammer Guler said that police later recovered evidence, including an unexploded rocket, from bushes near the scene of the attack. Anadoglu said that police intercepted the two suspects near a university campus.

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel's intelligence agency says a Palestinian lured an Israeli soldier to a village in the West Bank and killed him. The Shin Bet agency says the soldier's body was found in a well early on Saturday a Palestinian village near the city of Qalqiliya in the northern West Bank. The military says the soldier's family has been notified. The killing could deal a new blow to U.S.-led Mideast peace efforts, which resumed in July after a nearly five-year break.

EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) -- Egyptian security officials say a roadside bomb has struck an armored military vehicle in the restive northern part of Sinai, wounding two conscripts. The officials gave no further details on Saturday's attack. They say elsewhere in Sinai on Saturday, security forces arrested 16 suspected militants, including a man wanted in the abduction of six policemen and a border guard earlier this year. They say the man, Ismail Abu Shita, carried out the abductions to pressure police to release his imprisoned brother. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to media. Controversial negotiations with the abductors during President Mohammed Morsi's rule helped free the seven. Attacks in Sinai have increased since Morsi's July ouster by the military. An army offensive against militants is underway there.

CAIRO (AP) -- The state news agency says a farmer in southern Egypt has been arrested after putting the military chief's name and an army-style cap on his donkey while riding it through town. MENA news agency said that Omar Abul-Magd was arrested late Friday in Qena province for allegedly insulting Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who led the popularly-backed coup against President Mohammed Morsi. Since Morsi's ouster, authorities have cracked down on critics of the powerful military. Earlier this week, a military court ordered five pro-Morsi protesters to serve up to three years in prison for chanting against the army. Three were tried in absentia.

HONG KONG (AP) -- The year's most powerful typhoon has Hong Kong in its crosshairs after sweeping past the Philippines and Taiwan and pummeling island communities with torrential winds and fierce winds. Typhoon Usagi is grinding westward and expected to make landfall close to Hong Kong late Sunday or early Monday. Forecasters warn the storm poses a "severe threat" to the southern Chinese city. The typhoon passed on Saturday through the Luzon Strait separating the Philippines and Taiwan, likely sparing residents in both places from the most destructive winds near its eye. In the Philippines, Usagi left at least two dead and two others missing while in Taiwan nine people were hurt by falling trees on Kinmen island. Usagi was downgraded from a super typhoon on Saturday after sustained winds fell below 150 miles per hour. By Sunday morning it was about 230 miles east of Hong Kong and moving west at 12 mph. The Hong Kong Observatory says the storm would retain maximum sustained winds of 88 mph at 5 a.m. Monday after making landfall overnight.

CHINA-BO XILAI VERDICT JINAN, China (AP) -- A Chinese court has convicted fallen politician Bo Xilai (bwah shee-LY') of corruption and sentenced him to life in prison, capping one of the country's most lurid political scandals in decades. The Jinan Intermediate People's Court convicted the former Politburo member and Chongqing city Communist Party chief on charges of taking bribes, embezzlement and abuse of power. He was sentenced to life in prison on the bribery charges, 15 years for embezzlement and seven years for abuse of power. Bo, with crew cut hair and wearing a white shirt, stood to hear the verdict. Bo's downfall was set in motion by his wife's murder of a British businessman, followed his top aide's attempt to defect to a U.S. consulate with information about the case. Bo was later investigated for corruption.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- There's an apparent setback today after weeks of improving ties between north and South Korea that followed springtime threats of war. North Korea has indefinitely postponed reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War scheduled to start Wednesday, saying the six days of reunions, which last happened three years ago, could not be held because of South Korean conservatives' "reckless and vicious confrontation racket." It's a claim Pyongyang routinely makes. The development, which an analyst called a North Korean attempt to gain an advantage in negotiations with Seoul, is a twist in what had been gradually easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang had been tempering its threats and pursuing talks meant to restart various inter-Korean cooperation projects. The biggest highlight is the recent return of North and South Koreans to a jointly run factory park.

TROPICAL WEATHER ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) -- The wreckage of a missing Federal Police helicopter that crashed in Mexico while aiding in storm rescue efforts has been found. Officials say all aboard died. But they can't confirm how many were aboard. They are said to be all police officers. According to authorities, the overall death toll from storms Manuel and Ingrid over the past week rose to 101, not counting the helicopter casualties. Rescuers fighting tons of slippery, wet mud at the site of this week's worst storm disaster unearthed a woman's body Saturday, possibly one of 68 missing in a massive landslide that buried half of the remote coffee-growing town of La Pintada. The helicopter went missing on Thursday as it returned from La Pintada.

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- A Catholic official says the Vatican has removed a bishop in Peru amid allegations that he sexually abused minors. Bishop Luis Bambaren told reporters Friday that 53-year-old Gabino Miranda had been removed as part of Pope Francis' "zero tolerance" policy against abuse. Peruvian authorities said in a statement they are investigating the charges against Miranda, who is the second known bishop to be removed recently by the Vatican amid abuse allegations. The Rev. Percy Quispe of the archdiocese of Ayacucho in Peru told The Associated Press Saturday that Miranda has not belonged to the Catholic Church since July but did not specify why he had left. Quispe said Miranda had departed Ayacucho that month. Miranda had led the local episcopal youth commission.

YALTA, Ukraine (AP) -- A top Russian official has warned Ukraine against signing a landmark trade and cooperation agreement with the European Union, saying Moscow would retaliate with trade restrictions that could push this ex-Soviet republic toward default. Speaking at a conference in the Black Sea city of Yalta on Saturday, Russian presidential adviser Sergei Glazyev dismissed the benefits of a planned free-trade deal between the EU and Ukraine as "mythology." He warned that tariffs and trade checks that Russia would impose after the deal could cost Ukraine billions of dollars and result in a default. "One has to be ready to pay for that," Glazyev said. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, however, urged Ukraine to resist the Kremlin pressure and sign the agreement in November, citing Poland's success in joining the bloc.

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